Cash box or safe



No. 6l5,767. Patented D86. 27, I898.

E. GABON.

CASH BOX 08 SAFE.

(Applicatioxi flld Apr. 1, 1898.)

(No Model.)

Witnesses. I fwezzlbr J5 weal UNITED STATES PATENT Orricn.

ERNEST OARON, OF MONTREAL, CANADA, ASSIGNOR TO GILBERT BROUSEAU,

OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. I

CASH BOX OR SAFE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 616,767, dated December 27, 1898.

Application filed April 1, 1898. Serial No. 676,032. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST GABON, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and a resident of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Oanada, have invented an Improvement in Cash Boxes or Safes, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention, relating to cash boxes or safes, has for its object such a novel construction thereof that the lock cannot be easily picked or opened and so that the money in the box or safe cannot be pulled from the slot through which it was passed to enter the box or safe.

Among other uses my cash-box is useful in churches, where the box is usually fastened outside the church-door and where it is exposed frequently to be tampered with by boys and dishonest persons.

In my invention the keyhole for the box is at the front side thereof, and the lock is attached inside the box at its opposite side or back, and this back will be preferably made removable. The key, reaching from the front of the box across the same to enter the lock connected with the back, needs to be long, and to safely guide and support this long key I have interposed between the front and the back of the look a long rotatable keyguide and directing device, it being free to be rotated with the key between the front and back of the box.

The cash-receptacle inside of the box has an inclined shelf at one end upon which the money dropping into the slot may strike and roll therefrom into the receptacle, and the inner side of the top of the box under said slot is provided with a downwardly-inclined lip, so that a hook or wire cannot be inserted in the slot to enter the cash-receiving part of the receptacle. The said wire if putin said slot would either meet the end of the box or the incline or apron of the cash-receptacle.

Figure 1, in perspective, shows a cash box or safe embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged central transverse section of Fig. 1. Fig. 3, in section, shows one end of the cash-receptacle; and Fig. 4 is a sectional detail in the line y y, Fig. 1, and shows the lip located under the slot.

The body A of the box or safe may and preferably will be of metal, such as steel, the box being composed of a top and bottom a a two ends a a front side a and a rear side a The rear side a of the box is detachable, and it is shown as having attached to its inner side a suitable lock 0, which may be a tumbler-lock of any usu alconstruction. Said rear side has suitable fingers c, the free ends of which fit behind or engage a suitable cleat 0 the bolt c of the lock entering a suitable space or notch in a bar 0 secured to the under side of the top-plate a. The fingers c serve the purpose of hinges and enable the rear side of the box to be turned down in order to open the box to gain access to its interior, and instead of the fingers c I may use any usual or suitable hinge-joint connection.

The rear side a of the box has an attached knob d by which to open or detach the said side from the box when desired.-

Inside the box I have located a cash-receptacle 6, it having at one end an incline or apron e, and below the free end of said apron a second incline or bridge 6 so that cash dropped upon the first apron will roll or drop readily therefrom on the bridge, if the latter be used, and then upon the bottom of the receptacle 6.

The top of the box has a slit f, (shown in Fig. 1,) and (see Fig. 4) at the under side of said top I have secured a lip f, which occupies an inclined position, so that any money dropped into the slot will pass over said lip and drop first upon the apron 6. Owing to the shape of this lip and the apron, upon which the money cannot lodge, it will be obvious that a wire, stick, or other device could not be inserted in the slot f to reach money in the cash-box, so that by such appliance money put into the box and entering the cashreceptacle could not be abstracted by dishonest persons through the slot.

The front side of the box a has a guard 17, and this key-guard is extended in the form of a tube, as b, which occupies a stationary position inside the box, the end of the tube terminating near the usual keyhole e of the lock. Inside this tube I place the rotatable guide and directing device 9 (represented best in Fig. 2) by breaking out said tube, said guide having a long slot, (shown inFig. 1,) and by breaking out the guide in Fig. 2, the long key h being inserted in said groove and steadied and directed thereby, so that the end of the key may properly enter the usual keyhole part 0 of the lock. 'Were it not for this long guide and directing device it would not be possible to cause this long key to enter properly the keyhole of the lock, and a long slender key, such as shown, could not be rotated sufficiently to turn the bolt of the lock unless it were guided as provided for between the front and the back of the box.

The lock on a box of this sort is sometimes picked by a wire or the end of a file slightly bent; but it will be obvious that by removing the look as far as herein represented from the front of the box a person who desired to pick the lock would be left at a great disadvantage, because of the length of the instrument that would have to be devised to get into the lock, and, further, there is no opportunity whatever for makingan impression on the real keyhole of the look.

In the claims I shall designate the fingers c as under the term hinge connections, as they form one sort of hinge.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. A cash-box having a removable rear side provided at its interior with a lock, the front side of the box opposed to said rear side having a keyhole-guard and a loosely-mounted rotatable key-guide and directing device interposed between the said front side and rear side and extending across the box from the front approximately to the rear, to direct and steady a long key to enter the said lock at the rear, substantially as described.

2. A cash-box having a front side provided with a key-guard, a stationary tubular extension l) extended into and across said box from the said front side, a rotatable slotted guide and key-directing device supported within and extending to the rear end of the extension I), a rear plate provided with a lock to be entered by a long key adapted to reach across said box from its front side to its rear side, a suitable hinge device connecting said back plate and bottom plate to enable the back plate to be'opened or removed when the lock is unlocked, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ERNEST GABON.

Witnesses:

E. L. DESAULUIERS, THos. OoRHErLLEs. 

